Homelessness and Poverty: Is it THEIR fault?

Money is the decider on who is rich and who becomes poor. No wonder we are fighting over it to make it. The greed for money never seems to end… The rich want more and more and the poor want it just right. The people at the real bottom of the rung just want three meals a day. They are not asking for any more. ‘More’ is not in their vocabulary.

Extreme Poverty and Homelessness go hand in hand. Why does anyone have to be homeless in this era when we are seeing Mega Mansions being built all over the place? Most of the rooms are unoccupied. It may be someones third or fourth home. Is it acceptable for us to see Humans just like you and me living on the streets? The only difference is that we happen to be on this side. This has become too common a sight in all parts of the World. Do we even consider them as Human beings Or Have we gotten so used to it that we have learned to accept their fate. What have they done wrong? What circumstances have put them there? Did they cause this situation themselves? Can they come out of it? Will they ever? Maybe not. Our society is not forgiving at all. The poor have always being exploited in many ways since the beginning of civilization. That too the exploiter is usually a person who is not poor. Many centuries later we are still in the same place. If that’s the case how can we call ourselves civilized. Is it just for the sake of saying it that we are a highly civilized society? Most people try to come out of poverty or homelessness by putting in their best efforts, but in the process most of them give up. Thus the poor are put there in essence to serve the rich.

Ponder over this: If everyone were rich, who would serve them?

In Life there are ups and downs. It it was monotonous it would be very boring. So this cycle helps us catch the ride on the way up and dump the ride on the way down. But if we see the situation changing well in advance, we may even get off the ride before it starts dropping. This requires knowledge of basic economic cycles. We as a society are conditioned to buy anything and everything. That too with money we don’t have. So the rich are willing to lend us the money and take it back with interest. The poor always try to save money. When there is a sale on main street , everyone rushes in thinking they are saving a dollar or two. In fact they are digging themselves deeper into the hole of debt. But the rich always look for ways to invest them, thereby multiplying it many times over and over.

Financial Illiteracy is at an all time high. Whom do we blame it for? OURSELVES. We are to blame ourselves for not educating ourselves on matters of money. Schools are structured to not educate kids on Money or Finance. Less education on the topic means what? … Now you are thinking. The less we know, the more someone will come into the picture to take the little money which we already have. In that process it will make them richer and us even poorer. When we ourselves have less knowledge on how to manage money, there are many people who will call themselves “experts” willing to step in and help us, of course for a price. Would you trust your money with a stranger? How come we are allowing it to be managed by a stranger? They may be learning a thing or two about managing their money by using our own money. They may be learning a lot from their mistakes but at the expense of our money. This is how strangers eventually become “experts”. So today anyone can become an expert and get paid for it handsomely, sometimes with added bonuses.

Remember,The less we know, the more we will be exploited.

With vast increases in income inequality, the line between the rich and poor is well, diverging and going in the opposite directions at a very rapid pace. One heading for the skies and the other towards the ground. What does this say about us? There is no way these lines would ever meet. It has been status quo for many generations before us and it will continue to be the same moving forward.

The bottom line is : The less educated we are about finance or just about anything else in life, we will definitely see sharks circling us and seeing us as very lucrative bait. People go through many situations in life, someunforeseen, some due to bad decisions, some due to no fault of theirs, some unexpected, sometimes things do backfire etc, etc. So we cannot blame anyone for anything due to the fact that we are Human. We may even end up in their shoes some day. You never know. Life is full of unexpected twists and turns and is also filled with surprises. All of us do not like surprises, but we need to be prepared for anything that Life throws at us.

The poor are the ones who usually end up in prisons all over the World. With no connections, nor money, justice may be never served. Hunger and disease usually takes its toll. As family size increases, the struggle begins.

Anyone of us may end up being homeless or poor at any point in our lives. Anything is possible. What is homelessness and what is poverty? They are intermingled in one way or another. Once a person is born into poverty, he or she may have limited resources to come out of that situation. Since there is no easy way out, many see it being repeated for generations. Unless and until someone decides to look outside the box, get educated and move on to the next rung of the ladder, things will stay the same. No one is born poor or born homeless. In life it is what we make of it. Either we can change the situation through our efforts or make the decision to continue with the current situation at hand. So in short it is a decision making process. No one said Life was easy. We need to do what ever it takes to move forwards.Legally. Just like moving water has energy through its flow, we need to keep moving for us to succeed. Stagnant water breeds mosquitoes, and harbors disease. For any body of water to be healthy, it needs to keep moving. Do some work, any work. There are many jobs that we see which go unfilled because there is no one to do them.

In Life, we should be willing to take and do any job that comes our way, work ourselves up to the next rung and then the next, so on and so forth. We are the captain of our ship. We need to steer it where we want it to go. If we let the wind decide the destination, it may be heading towards land. All of us can blame our situation on someone, but ultimately it is our Life and our decisions that will make us or break us. We can complain all we want. People do not care nor pity us. Because they themselves are struggling to survive by earning their own Dollar. Now do you think they care about you.

Remember this: When we start displaying our problems to others. 80% of them will be very glad that we have the problem and the rest 20% don’t even care about it. This is what I call the 80-20 rule. So some problems are to be worked out inside us. It’s not an exhibition. If this were an exhibition, we would all be proud to display our own problems hoping that someone would pick up our slack. We would be happy to unload them and take the weight off of our shoulders.

In case we are born poor, we have to create the right situation to get out of it. This takes careful planning, utilization of existing resources, social networking, etc. Today we all have the luxury of freely accessing the internet at no charge from public Libraries, so we should have no reason to STAY poor in the first place. If we have the will power and the determination to succeed, we will put in the necessary effort to get ourselves out of it. If you are born rich, spare some change, help others, guide others and help them also succeed like you and your family. Their family may thank you for it. It may help you achieve your inner bliss which no money can buy.

Remember : Society rewards us for showing them results and do not care for our efforts. Results with no benefit to society ends up in trash. People like to see the end result, not how many years you have been training for it day in and day out. They do not care about the sacrifices you have made during that journey of yours. Nor do they care if you were training during freezing rain, during a blizzard or on a sunny day while they were partying.

So to come out of poverty and to come out of homelessness, effort is very essential. Piggy back it with deep seated determination, persistence and perseverance to get the desired result. Once out of it, guide and give back to others who continue to be living in it. You have been there. You have lived it, experienced it. Now it’s time to share your experiences with others so than no one else will need to travel along the same old path as you.

Being born poor is not in our hands, but if we continue to stay poor it’s our doing.